The Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Galicia Sur (IISGS), accredited by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, was created in 2008 through the signing of a collaboration agreement between the Consellería de Sanidade, the Servicio Galego de Saúde and the Universidade de Vigo. Its creation responds to the strategy promoted by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) for the development of Health Research Institutes as organizational structures for the promotion and development of research in hospitals.

On October 19, 2021, a new collaboration agreement was signed between the Regional Ministry of Health, the Galician Health Service (Sergas), the University of Vigo and the Galicia Sur Biomedical Foundation to regulate the continuity and development of the Galicia Sur Health Research Institute, which constitutes the current legal link of the Institute.

The IIS Galicia Sur is a multidisciplinary research space in Biomedicine, based at the Hospital Álvaro Cunqueiro in Vigo, which brings together the clinical research groups of the Health Areas of Southern Galicia and the biomedical groups of the University of Vigo, with the aim of promoting translational research and innovation, thus ensuring the effective application of research results in terms of benefits for the health of citizens.

The Fundación Biomédica Galicia Sur is the managing entity of the IISGS and is in charge of the integral management of the research, development and technological innovation projects requested and developed by all the research groups that make up the Institute.

It is structured in 8 research areas, two of them transversal:

Area 1. Neurosciences and Psychiatric Diseases.

Area 2. Inflammatory and Infectious Diseases and Immune Disorders.

Area 3. Metabolism. Nutrition and Rare and Genetically Based Diseases.

Area 4. Large System Diseases, Aging and Regenerative Medicine.

Area 5. Cancer.

Area 6. Efficiency and Quality in Health Services, Patient Safety and Health Economics.

Transversal Area: Clinical Decision Support Systems.

Transversal Area: Biomedical Technologies.